PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Las sumidades aéreas. 

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: diurético y purificador de la sangre. 

POSOLOGÍA= Posology: Infusión : una cucharada de postre por taza. Tres o más tazas al día. Decocción : 50 g/l, hervir un minuto. dejar reposar durante 10 min. Tres tazas al día. 

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA= Chemical composition: Se ha descripto la presencia de una resina aromática, flavonoides, saponósidos. Abundantes sales minerales : potásicas, cálcicas. 

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: Mediterraneo, Europa Central y Norte America. 

DIVERSIDAD GENÉTICA Y MEJORAMIENTO DE PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants and improvement of medicinal herbs
 
Caryophyllaceae is a principally holarctic family including around 2200 species often classified into the three subfamilies Alsinoideae, Caryophylloideae, and Paronychioideae.  Complex and possibly homoplasious morphol. characters within the family make taxa difficult to delimit and diagnose.  To explore part of the morphol. evolution within the family, we investigated the phylogeny of the Caryophyllaceae by means of analyzing plastid and nuclear sequence data with parsimony and Bayesian methods.  We describe a mode of tracing a stable phylogenetic signal in ITS sequences, and a significant common signal is shared with the plastid data.  Parsimony and Bayesian analyses yield some differences in tree resoln.  None of the subfamilies appear monophyletic, but the monophyly of the Caryophylloideae is not contradicted.  Alsinoideae are paraphyletic, with Arenaria subg. Eremogone and Minuartia subg. Spergella more closely related to the Caryophylloideae.  There is strong support for the inclusion of Spergula-Spergularia in an Alsinoideae-Caryophylloideae clade.  Putative synapomorphies for these groupings are twice as many stamens as no. of sepals and a caryophyllad-type of embryogeny.  Paronychioideae form a basal grade, where tribe Corrigioleae are sister to the rest of the family.  Free styles and capsules with simple teeth are possibly plesiomorphic for the family.

ÚLTIMOS AVANCES EN LA QUÍMICA Y ACTIVIDADES BACTERIOLÓGICAS EN LAS PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants, last advances on chemistry and bacteria activities on the medicinal herbs

Spergularia rubra is distributed all over the world, being its infusion used as diuretic.  In spite of its large use, the antidiabetic, anti-cholinesterase and antioxidant activities of this species have not been assessed and its chem. compn. is scarcely known.  In the work herein a hydromethanolic ext. was studied.  Thirty-six phenolic compds. were detd. by HPLC-DAD, comprising non-acylated C-glycosyl flavones (38%), C-glycosyl flavones acylated with arom. acids (36%), C-glycosyl flavones acylated with aliph. acids (13%) and 10% corresponded to C-glycosyl flavones with a mixed acylation.  Org. acids (oxalic, citric, malic, quinic and fumaric acids) and fatty acids (azelaic, myristic, palmitic, linoleic, linolenic and stearic acids) are described for the first time.  Their detn. by HPLC-UV and GC-IT-MS allowed finding concns. of 192.15 and 34.87 g/kg, resp.  The ext. showed a dose-dependent response against DPPH, superoxide and nitric oxide radicals.  The same effect was obsd. in the a-glucosidase inhibitory assay and against acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterases.  The bioactivities obsd. may be due, at least partially, to the presence of the different metabolites detd. in the present study.  The results suggest that the dried ext. of S. rubra may be interesting for incorporation in pharmaceutical prepns. for human health, since it can suppress hyperglycemia and inhibit cholinesterases, and or as food additive due to its antiradical activity.

Origin

Native to Southern France and Malta; found in Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh.

Action:

Diuretic. Used in cystitis and urethral colic, dysuria and urinary calculi.

1) Fitoterapia : vademecum de prescripcion. 4ª  ed. Barcelona : Masson, 2003, p.125.

2) FIOR, Simone, et al. Molecular phylogeny of the Caryophyllaceae (Caryophyllales) inferred from chloroplast matK and nuclear rDNA ITS sequences. American Journal of Botany. 2006, vol. 93 nº3, p.399-411.   

3) VINHOLES, Juliana, et al. In vitro studies to assess the antidiabetic, anti-cholinesterase and antioxidant potential of Spergularia rubra. Food Chemistry. 2011, vol. 129, nº2, p.454-462.  

4) Khare, C.P./ Indian Medicinal Plants. -- Nueva Dheli: Springer, 2007 . - p 621.